Fridae

America's three largest domestic car makers, GM, Ford and Chrysler are in serious trouble and the current economic crisis will inevitably batter them further. While GM and Chrysler are looking at having a merger to counter their financial worries, Ford on the other hand has been actively dumping subsidiaries, as Mazda is rumoured to be the latest to put up the "For Sale" sign. Perhaps Ford management is seeking to become a lean and fast acting car company in the near future?

Ford America thrives mainly on the profits from dinosaur-like trucks and SUVs. The F-150 (a truck) was the best selling vehicle in the Unites States for 23 years, and is believed to contribute to more than half of Ford's profits in recent years. Soaring fuel prices saw the sales of such fuel guzzlers nose dive and the American big three's sales took a free fall as their showroom cars lack fuel efficiency models.

Lucky for Ford, their European operations is well sorted with attractive and profitable products, especially with the Ford Focus, a class leading competitor to European hatchbacks. Introduced in 2004, the recent facelift saw extensive changes made to introduce Ford's new Kinetic design language on to the bland Focus. Every exterior panel (except the roof) underwent a reworking with the following key detail changes: trapezoidal grilles, swept back headlamps, bold wheel arches, newly shaped rear glass, a contoured tailgate and new tail lamps. And the name of the doctor is Martin Smith, a genius who turned Ford's dull cars into exciting and interesting objects of desire.

The Ford Focus has a 1.6 litre engine in three body styles, a four-door sedan, a five-door hatchback and a five-door station wagon. The Focus which is Ford's biggest selling model in Europe is being topped off by a 2.5 litre turbocharged ST model, which remains a relatively rare sight on our roads despite its competitive pricing.

The Ford Focus is a marriage of the vast Ford's empire portfolio of car brand's expertise. The Focus benefited from Mazda's high efficient manufacturing methods, excellent safety standards from Volvo and Ford's own chassis tuning gurus. Sadly, they lacked a partner that is good with engines. The 1.6 litre engine in the facelifted Focus comes from Mazda and is best described as adequate on a leisurely day. It needs to be constantly pressed hard and being paired with a dated four-speed automatic gearbox does not help.

By having such a weedy powerplant, it meant that speeding tickets would certainly be quite an impossible feat. However, travelling at lower speeds does not take away the fun in the Ford Focus. The chassis gurus at Ford's European arms made sure that the Focus remains fluidly and controlled at all speeds, albeit low ones. The slow test drive became increasingly frustrating as the talents and depth of the chassis was apparent with every corner and twist.

Ford has been trying hard to make their interiors euro-competitive and it shows here in their re-work of the Focus's interior. In place of the horrid and cheap looking green lit lighting for the instruments, elegant and sporty warm orange hue is being used. The design and use of space in the Focus has been exemplary as there is class leading room everywhere, particularly the huge boot which is rated at 396 litres. The standard Sony sound system sounds bassy and is easy to navigate around its functions.

It is very easy to see why there are happy Ford Focus owners around. This is a Euro-chic, five-star Euro NCAP, excellent to drive and reliable hatchback. While the Ford Focus Wagon might sound more for delivery services, but in truth, it is my pick among the three body shapes after the facelift. There are strong overtones of a Saab 9-3 SportCombi in the Focus Wagon. While the Focus might cost at least 10K more than a Thai-made Toyota Corolla Altis, the premium is easily justified by taking the Focus out for a drive.

	Ford  Focus (Hatchback)
Engine	Front, transverse, 4 Cyls in line, 1596cc, DOHC, Duratec Petrol
Transmission	Durashift 4-Speed Automatic
Max. Power	100ps@ 6000rpm
Max. Torque	150nm@4000rpm
0-100 km/h	13.6 secs
Top speed	200 km/h
Fuel Economy	13.0 km/Litres
CO2 Emissions	Euro 4 Compliant
Dimensions (L x W x H) / Weight	4,337mmX2,019mmX1,500mm / 1,308 kg
Drag Coefficent	0.32 (Hatchback)
Suspension (Front)	Independent MacPherson struts with offset coil spring over gas filled damper units and lower L-arms with optimised front rubber bushings and rear hydro-bush mounted on separate reinforced cross-member sub-frame, anti-roll bar.
Suspension (Rear)	Fully independent multi-link Control Blade with large dampers and rebound springs. Anti-roll-bar mounted to spring link in double ball-joint.
Price with COE*	$75,888

*Prices quoted are indicative of prices in Singapore. Please contact your local distributor for prices in your country.

Ford America should invest in the tooling tools to make and sell the current Focus. Trying to sell the old Focus MK I (which is easily 10 years old now) does nothing for your brand image.